There’s something not quite right about the garden this year. We’ve had no summer but while wet, it hasn’t been cold. You’d think the slow growing Treeferns would lap it up and most of them have.
The size of their crown of fronds is determined, basically, by the length of the trunk so it surprises me that the Patriarch of the tribe - only twenty five years old - has thrown out a pitifully small number of fronds which are much diminished in length. The same applies to one more Fern of similar age. The other forty or so Ferns look very content.
Just an oddity much like the flowering trees which didn’t flower this year. Some did, some didn’t. I don’t know the life cycle of Trees. Perhaps they have an ‘off’ year for no discernable reason .... I know I do..... having one now.
A day of sun perhaps once in every two or three weeks. Much of the wet is because we’re a mile high where the clouds are low and the thunder immediate.
Once upon a time, soaking wet and warming up with a cup of tea, in a highland village in Bali, rain torrential brought everything to a standstill. This is the sort of rain we’re having.... but this isn’t the tropics.
Planted few flowers this year and relied on bulbs which the wild gangs of rabbits - roaming the neighbourhood with cheerful impunity - seem to leave alone.
Thunder rolls and the storm is not accompanied by wind. It sits, growling above our heads ..... and sits some more.
Someone I like and respect throws out that he doesn’t much like himself. Many of us relate to that feeling. It’s not so much about being a ‘terrible’ person but more ‘Could have done better.’
“ Have a little faith - take a little heart.”
“With the exception of love - everything changes.”
“All else falls apart.”
..... and so runs a chorus to the last song that I’ve written.
I could be writing it to myself.
The ebbs and flows of my ‘deeper’ self would happily be a hermit and yet there remain things to be done. Not the least of these is a songlist to be refined and defined to perform for Blackheath Folk on Saint David’s day, March 1st.
While I try to be open enough to ‘go with the flow’, it’s not the way I feel. Anyway - for all that, I’ll gather my courage and find a dozen songs which hopefully make sense.
There’s something comforting and ‘Folk’ about performing with no amplification - makes it more like playing in a home and so, if I feel that I need the lyrics at hand, I’ll take them.
After that, maybe a break.